Women In Pain Conference To Focus on Resiliency

The importance of personal resilience in the battle against chronic pain will be the focus of the 8th annual Women in Pain Conference in Los Angeles on September 11.

(For those of you who don’t live in L.A., you can view the event which will be live streamed through the For Grace website – here.)

Women are more likely to suffer from chronic pain and the pain can come more frequently and hit with greater intensity.

“This year, I’m excited that we’ll be focusing on resilience,” said Cynthia Toussaint, who is founder of For Grace which is presenting the conference. “Whether we are born with resilience or not, we can learn to develop more which is what the day is all about.”

This idea of resilience was explored on the National Pain Report earlier this year. Stanford’s Drew Sturgeon, a post-doctoral fellow researching the topic, asked our readers to participate in a survey about resilience. While the data are still being analyzed, the hope is that future treatment models and an ability to predict how some will react to a chronic pain condition can emerge. We’ll share those results when he has them.

He’s happy the For Grace Conference is exploring resilience with the chronic pain community.

“Pain can be a stop signal,” he said. “People in pain often stop going to work, stop exercising and stop seeing friends. Resilience is the ability to run that stop signal and keep your life going.”

The conference will feature two keynote speakers who have considerable experience in the field.

Afton Hassett, Psy.D is a license clinical psychologists and associate Research Scientist at the University of Michigan who will talk about the importance of resilience building and sustainability.

Author Danea Horn is a chronic illness advocate who wrote Chronic Resilience and will discuss how stress management is essential to overcoming life-altering illness.

In addition to the two keynotes, the Women in Pain Conference will also feature educational sessions on:

Cognitive Reappraisal

Mindfulness Meditation

Creating Cursing Therapy

Personal Comeback Stories

For Grace is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that promotes better care and wellness for women in pain.